STAGE WEST: "Masa" at OnStage Playhouse

Veronica Burgess and Julian Ortega in "Masa."                                Photo courtesy of OnStage Playhouse

            Playwright Salomon Maya may not have set out to create a work of magical realism with “Masa,” but his textured drama about family and grief has more than mere shades of the artistic genre characterized by the extraordinary inhabiting the otherwise ordinary.
            In Maya’s world premiere at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista, Lolita, the widow of a beloved husband killed in the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, believes that Carlos “speaks” to her in the form of Beatles songs that seem to randomly start playing on the family radio. Then there’s the masa itself, the dough with which Lolita makes her popular tamales. It becomes food for inspiration and athletic greatness among the members of the Argentine futbol team, which is in Mexico City competing for the 1986 World Cup. It’s just eight months after the deadly quake that took at least 10,000 lives.
            Whether there’s any magic in Lolita’s radio or the tamales she lovingly creates is purely speculative, but these narrative contrivances add a fanciful and even touching aspect to the story of a woman so immersed in grief that she cannot leave her home.
            That is a source of frustration and pain for her soon-to-be-18-year old son, Santiago. The boy is grieving himself, but rather than seeking comfort in songs before his time emanating from a radio, he’s working on rebuilding one of the fallen edifices from the quake.
            The fates of Lolita, beautifully played by Veronica Burgess, and Santiago (an earnest Julian Ortega) are soon impacted by the arrival of Gaston (the playwright Maya), who works for the Argentine futbol team. He brings news to Lolita that its players, and most especially its star playmaker Diego Maradona, crave her tamales for performance power; for the searching Santiago, Gaston brings hope of a future out of his claustrophobic home in spite of his deep devotion to his mother.
            “Masa’s” fourth character is Dorotea (Denise Lopez), Lolita’s friend and neighbor who has been “tia” to Santiago all his life. She is the story’s comic relief but also perhaps its most worldly wise presence. It takes convincing Lolita to hide under a table – a flashback to their shared earthquake experience – to begin bringing her friend around.
            The charm of “Masa,” directed by James Darvas, is the dedication to and passion for these characters that the entire cast exhibits. Conversations are fast and frantic at times and emotions jumbled. But Lolita, Santiago, Dorotea and even Gaston feel very real and totally sympathetic.
            Burgess’ Lolita is the play’s heartbeat. Her sadness and her confronting her inner strength constitute the arc of the story. The Beatles tunes on the radio, though whimsical, don’t even feel necessary.
            The masa is, naturally, a metaphor, but Maya doesn’t allow it to become heavy-handed. His is a story of family and friends. The masa is an ingredient. An important one, yes, but it’s her love that nourishes those she cares so much about.
            “Masa” continues through Oct. 27 at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista.